I received an email from someone this morning. This was in relation to asking people for keywords (how you see yourself vs. how others see you) in my Personal Branding Workbook.
The email said:
Thanks for sharing. Interesting thread, if people don’t see you the way you see yourself, how do you reconcile that? Do you even need to see yourself the ways others see you?
Of course, this can be taken and answered in many different ways. My general answer in this area is “it depends”.
There is no “need” to do, or not do, if you think about it. There is only what works for you.
With this in mind, the question to ask is, Does the way/s in which you see yourself help you.
If your perception of yourself doesn’t help, then asking others (who have your best interests at heart) is a means by which you can re-think, and perhaps “re-see”, this important area.
That’s because most of us have, at some level, a skewed (often self-critical) view of ourselves.
So we come back to the question of why would I even need to look at this?
The whole discussion is raised in the context of personal brand. This isn’t merely an intellectual exercise.
When my clients download the Personal Branding Workbook, they are doing so with a specific intention – how can I show up with the best possible version of myself.
Circling back, again, to the question of why look at how you, and others, see yourself, my short answer is this: you do whatever it takes to help you to show up as your confident self.
